


The Wolf and the Bird

by LuckythePizzaDog



Category: Original Work
Genre: Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Angst, F/F, F/M, Fluff, M/M, Polyam Couples, X-men OC Universe, kinda they developed into practically not even xmen OCs but w/e, more tags to come, tagging is hard
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-04-07
Updated: 2017-04-07
Packaged: 2018-10-16 02:34:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,845
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10561950
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LuckythePizzaDog/pseuds/LuckythePizzaDog
Summary: alternately titled: Benji Redemption Arc AU (bc honestly i live for redemption arc's)





	

**Author's Note:**

> so i got this story idea yesterday and i worked on it until 3am... real dedication right there. i hope everyone enjoys this story about my oc's and about recovery processes and all that fun stuff!

Amias nearly bowled over Vince, before catching himself and allowing his own twin butterfly swords to scrape against Vince’s full steel arms. Vince flinched as the screech of metal on metal, backing away as much as he could and collapsing, covering his now ringing ears.

“That’s game! The winner of this match is Amias!” Orion yelled from the arena sidelines, holding up two bright blue flags. June unwillingly replaced her own name tag with Amias’ on the “Orion’s Training Session Winner” board, dropping her own back into the bin below the board. As the training session ended, Vince approached 

“Good game, man. That trick at the end always gets me, how do you not at least flinch at the sound? It’s almost as ear piercing as Melody’s screams.” Vince grinned, looking at Amias as he sheathed his swords. Amias stretched his arms in the air and started to walk towards his weapon cubby. Vince, thoroughly annoyed that he had been near blatantly ignored, watched as Amias walked away from him.

“Hey, Jedidiah, can you get Amias’ attention for me?” Vince yelled across the room. Jedidiah nodded in response and tapped Amias’ shoulder. Amias stopped and turned towards Jed, pulling something out of his ears. Jed pointed towards Vince, who was approaching the two, Amias’ gaze following the direction Jed was pointing in.

“Amias. How did you not want to claw your eardrums out when you scratched my steel arms?” Vince spoke louder, muttering ‘That loud enough for you?’ under his breath. Amias laughed and held out his hand, revealing what he had taken out of his ears.

“Noise-cancelling ear buds. I’m surprised you never caught on, as I usually reply to taunts when training, but never did for you. Or at least I haven't for you, since I only started using that tactic a couple of our one versus one training sessions ago.” Amias smiled as Vince slapped himself in the face, pocketing the ear buds and continuing his walk towards his cubby. Jedidiah chuckled and nudged Vince’s arm with his elbow.

“Hey, at least you know he won't use that on you again.”

“You can still bet that I’m gonna get myself a couple pairs of those earbuds, though.”

“Of course you will, Vince, of course you will.” Jedidiah pat Vince’s shoulder and shrugged on a hoodie as he went to exit the arena for breakfast. Before he could, though, Max burst through the double doors.

“ALRIGHT FUCKERS, CAIDENCE IS GONNA KICK ALL OF YOUR ASSES IF YOU DON’T GET TO THE KITCHEN NOW!” Max yelled, making Amias drop a couple of knives he was arranging in his cubby. Jedidiah held a hand to his chest and Vince exhaled loudly.

“Thanks for nearly giving us all heart attacks, babe.” Vince said to Max as he walked up to him.

“Anytime, sweetheart.” Max grinned and winked at Vince, taking a step back and blowing his boyfriend a kiss before turning around and jogging the (fairly short) distance to the kitchen.

Vince walked into the kitchen a couple seconds after Max did and was, inevitably, confronted by a near fuming Caidence balancing a baby Aquila on her left hip, with a spatula smeared with pancake batter in her right hand.

“Hmph. Finally, though I was expecting Amias first. Whatever, come get your pancakes. You’re lucky as hell the twins wanted more, so you get a fresh batch.” Caidence spun around and walked back to the large griddle that was set on top of the stove and part of the counter next to it. Vince went to grab his own breakfast. Luke, one of the twins who had requested more pancakes, jumped in front of Vince to get two of five of the warm pancakes. His brother, Leo, followed suit. Vince groaned and grabbed the single pancake that was left out. He didn't feel like waiting for more, so he went to sit in between his boyfriends, Lynx and Max.

“What took you so long?” Lynx asked after swallowing down a fork full of pancake drenched in syrup, taking the syrup bottle from the twins and handing it to Vince.

“I was just asking Amias about a tactic he used in our spar. Which, of course, you wouldn't have seen since you weren't at training, so let's talk about that, huh?” Vince teased, pouring a bit of syrup onto the lone pancake on his plate. Lynx pushed Vince’s shoulder playfully, causing some syrup to spill onto the table. Lynx made an ‘oops’ face and placed a napkin on top of the mess. 

“You know I oversleep, Vince.”

“Yes, because you overslept for three hours with the majority of us yelling while training.” Vince rolled his eyes and took a bite of his pancake.

“Caidence, Madelyne, Aquila and Sigma weren't at training.” Lynx stated, which was a totally true fact but was being used in the wrong situation.

“Yeah, because Caidence and Mads had to take care of Sigma and Aquila, who are 2 and 6 months respectively, mind you. They aren't going to fight against 14 and older mutants, hun.” Vince sighed at his boyfriend’s attempt to make up excuses for not being at training. Vince noticed Lynx had pushed away his breakfast plate and was sitting back in his chair, probably no big deal, but Lynx did seem really hungry a minute ago so it was slightly concerning.

“I'm...a...deep sleeper,” Lynx said slowly, stuffing his hands in his hoodie pocket and trying to look anywhere but at Vince.

“You’re anything BUT a deep sleeper, Lynx.” Max laughed softly and reached behind Vince to pat Lynx on the head after stuffing a large piece of pancake in his mouth. Lynx sighed and buried his face in his hoodie. Vince waited for a bit before speaking to Lynx again.

“Y’know, you don't have to hide it-”

“God damnit, Vince, I would rather not talk about this anymore. I just.. Couldn't come to training, okay?” Lynx stood up from his chair and walked out of the kitchen just as Orion stood up on a chair, seemingly to address something.

“Alright folks,” Orion started, immediately getting interrupted by Archie.

“Heh, folks,” Archie snickered, shutting up as soon as Madelyne shot him a death glare.

“...Anyway. I would just like to let you all know that today will be a free day, as I have some business to take care of. Make sure you all put your breakfast plates in the dishwasher and, like always, whoever is last has to start it.” Orion stepped down from the chair as everyone broke out in cheers, thankful for the free day. Vince took the chance to grab his own and Lynx’s plates to the sink to rinse them off and then put them in the dishwasher. He slid past Sigma, who was holding his own dirty dish, careful to not accidently knock the small child over. Once Vince exited the kitchen, he leaned against a wall, running a hand through his hair as he waited for Max. Max soon exited the kitchen and wrapped an arm around Vince’s waist.

“Let’s go to my room, Lynx seemed kinda mad so we should give him some space.” Max said, Vince nodding in agreement, though he knew for a fact that Lynx went somewhere else other than his own room. Vince was concerned about if Lynx was really okay or not, but like Max said, they should give him some space.

 

\+ + +

 

Orion ended up staying in the kitchen for a while after everyone left after breakfast, helping to clean up the messy counters and table. Amias also stayed behind, which made Caidence feel more thankful than ever. Caidence sat at the table and bottle fed Aquila while Sigma contently drew on a plain piece of paper with crayons and Orion and Amias worked together to clean up. 

Once the remains of breakfast were cleaned up, Orion went around the room and kissed each person on the forehead before heading to his room. He promptly sat down at his desk and put his head in his hands after closing his door. Was what he was about to do a bad idea? He was about to invite OSPREY’s technical enemy to live with them, but at the same time he had known this ‘enemy’ for quite a while, he wasn't that menacing. Just an alcoholic Russian with a bad temper, nothing could go wrong. It's not like they had any easy to find alcohol in the house, and barely any at that.

Though, on the other hand, there were a few members of the household that thoroughly hated Benji (the ‘enemy’). Well, more like just one person hated Benji, everyone else could tolerate Benji to a certain point. But, oh boy, did Lynx hate Benji. Since Orion wasn't really one to be nosy about anyone’s past, he wasn't exactly sure of the reason why, but what he did know was that Lynx and Benji are (were?) brothers, and that Lynx had changed his last name to be completely unrelated to Benji’s. So, it could be said that the two had a very troubled past with each other.

God, Orion needed to stop overthinking this. If he was really going to do this, he needed to relax and get ready to go now. He had been thinking of this for a long time now, and had already told his wives and boyfriend about what he was doing and they knew where he was going that day. They trusted him to stay true to his word, and he didn't want to let them down.

Rubbing his eyes, Orion stood up from his desk and grabbed his small messenger bag, finally walking or of his room and into the front lobby before he overthought it even more and didn't go through with the plan. Coincidently, Madelyne was just passing through and he didn't have to look for her.

“Hey honey, I’m heading out. You know where I’m going, please let Caidence and Amias know for me?” Orion looked up at his wife, who smiled softly and nodded.

“Sure thing, dear. Stay safe, you know how the city is.” Madelyne bent down and kissed Orion’s cheek. Orion smiled at her and grabbed her hand, giving it a reassuring squeeze before letting go and waving goodbye, then heading out the front set of double doors.

This was bound to be a long day.

 

\+ + +

 

Orion boarded the bus to the city, exhausted after the several miles he had to walk to the first bus stop. He handed the driver the bus fee and took a seat near the middle. Thankfully, it wasn't a very busy bus day and practically everyone had a single seat (save for a group of loud teenagers who took up two rows of seats in the back).

Orion pulled his bag onto his lap and put his headphones on, turning on a random playlist of music and staring out the window. While the walk to the edge of the city really wasn't that far, a bus ride was always the easiest option if he didn't want his legs dead by the end of the day. A couple minutes into the bus ride, Orion's phone was bombarded with texts from the OSPREY skype group chat. Orion chuckled silently as he read through the beginning of the conversation. It seemed that Archie and Jedidiah were raving about Melody and Brooke finally getting together. Orion sent a “finally” to the chat, making it blow up even more than it had at the beginning.

After a good ten minutes, the bus arrived at a stop that was just inside the city. Orion got of, thanking the bus driver and making his way to the rundown subway tunnel where Benji and the whole of Wolf Pack resided.

The walk to the subway didn't take very long, but it took a bit for Orion to muster up the courage to actually walk down into it. He knew exactly what was waiting for him, all nine members of Wolf Pack doing some kind of work that their leader, Benji, had instructed them to do. Of course, Benji would be doing none of the work, and probably would just be lounging on some bench. 

When Orion eventually walked down, he was glad to be greeted by a stressed out looking Austin, who seemed to get even more stressed out when Orion said he needed to talk to Benji.

“Uhhm, Benji isn't in the greatest mood right now.. He kinda just separated everyone from our cleaning groups to work on our own.” Austin scratched nervously at his arms, looking behind him at the rest of the subway, checking for anyone else near him, or even Benji.

“It’ll be fine. He’s my friend, he’ll understand once I talk to him.” Orion smiled lightly.

“It’s hard to believe Benji actually has friends, but alright. Um, just come with me, I show you to where he is.” Austin started to head down the subway with Orion following behind him. This grabbed the attention of the other Wolf Pack members, who decided to follow the two to see what was going on.

Benji, like Orion knew he would be, was taking up an entire bench by laying across it. Benji turned his head at the sound of footsteps, mouth open like he was about to say something and seemingly in a tired daze, but his eyes widened and he nearly fell off the bench trying to stand up at the sight of Orion.

“What the fuck is this.” Benji said blankly, now staring at Austin, who took a step back.

“Uhm, O-Orion said he needed to talk to you...” Austin stated, nearly jumping a foot in the air when Orion set a hand on his shoulder.

“Benji, I have something very important I need to talk to you about. If you could listen to me all the way before responding, that would be much appreciated.” Orion held his hands together, taking several steps forward to stand in front of Benji, then looking down at the ground in await of what Benji would say in response. Austin scampered back to the group of other mutants, all of which were focused on watching what was going on.

“‘Kay. Go ahead.” Benji replied, unamused, and crossed his arms as he waited for Orion to start. Orion looked up at Benji hesitantly, well aware of the stares of the other Wolf Pack members burning into the back of his head. 

"I.... I wanted to ask you if you wanted to come live with me. With Osprey. I want to help you, Benji, I really do. I want you to get into an Alcoholic Anonymous group as well. If not that, at least some sort of one on one therapy sessions, or just. Talk with me. Be open about anything, and get better. The way you're living isn't healthy, but I can help. Please. Just let me help." Orion exhaled, looking back down at the ground, afraid of the other’s response to the big question. Benji froze, his face a mixture of shock and confusion, before bending down and giving Orion a tight hug.

"I'll come live with you. On one condition, that you let my brother know beforehand. The way he reacted when I stayed longer than he had expected that one time, when I had that seizure. He reacted terribly and… I… Don’t want that to happen again. I want my little brother back. I don't want to start this… Repair off with him hating both me and you.” Orion was sure he could feel a wet spot on his sweater from the tears rolling down his friend’s cheeks, but brushed it off and hugged Benji back with nearly the same force.

“I’m sure Lynx will still hate me despite what happens,” Orion glanced up and chuckled, earning a small punch in the side.

“You know what I mean. Hate you less, hate me more,” Benji pulled away from the hug and standing to his full height (minus an inch or so due to his bad posture). His hands lingered on Orion’s shoulders for a couple seconds before retreating them to his pockets and glaring at the group of younger mutants behind Orion.

“What are you guys looking at? Go do… I don't fucking know… Things that don't include staring at me?” Benji said, a slight intimidating tone in his voice. James was the first to dart out of the subway after grabbing his things, the rest following at a much slower pace and talking quietly about what they would do now that their leader seemed to practically leave them.

Benji and Orion watched as the group exited their line of sight, Orion soon moving to stand next to Benji. 

“So… What next?” Benji finally sparked the question, breaking the comfortable silence. Orion sighed, his gaze staying on the subway exit for a moment longer before he reached into his back pocket and pulled out his phone.

“First.. I break the news to Lynx.”

**Author's Note:**

> thats about it for chapter one of twatb!! i hope everyone who reads this enjoyed it, because i know i had a ton of fun writing it!
> 
> now, here's what i had written down for the outline of the chapter!:
> 
> -friendly talk between Vince and Amias, the sweetest members of Osprey (tho Vince gets salty for a sec bc Amias ignored him)  
> -Momma Caidence  
> -breakfast!  
> -Lynx is hiding something, like always  
> -ooooooo shit Orion contemplates his Idea   
> -spoiler alert: he goes through with the Idea anyway but thankfully doesn't regret it  
> -does Orion and benji is gay?   
> -Lynx is gonna be pissed


End file.
